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Celebrating Women in XR: Insights from a powerful webinar

On March 19th, 2025, in celebration of International Women’s Rights Day, we hosted a dynamic and insightful webinar titled “Women in XR.” The event brought together six remarkable women specialists from across the extended reality landscape, offering their unique perspectives on navigating and thriving in a predominantly male field. The webinar was a  success, drawing 81 participants eager to learn from these inspiring leaders.

The panelists shared their personal journeys, career highlights, and the challenges they’ve encountered, offering invaluable advice and sparking needed conversations about gender diversity in XR. Here are some key takeaways and powerful quotes from our esteemed speakers:

Building Networks and Overcoming Challenges:

Moonisa Ahsan emphasized the importance of community, stating: “Try to find your network, try to find your community. You have all the power and capacity to do it alone, but you don’t need to do it. Reach out to your mentors and mentees and look out for them, ask questions and get comfortable with rejection is part of the process, you need to accept it.” She also highlighted the diverse opportunities within XR: “Opportunities in XR are endless, pursue what you are good at. Technology is not the only way. You can work on the hardware, support the team, work on the legal aspects (…). You pick your only skillset. Look on what you are good at, focus on that and it will be your superpower”.

Marievi Xezonaki encouraged aspiring women in the field: “Do not be afraid to enter this challenging field, quite male dominated, don’t be afraid. Prepare yourself and change your mindset to believe in you. Don’t compare yourself to anyone. It doesn’t help to promote yourself in the field. Trust yourself and the pace you are progressing.” She also touched upon the mental barriers women face: “Because we don’t see many women in leadership in this field, this starts to be a mental barrier, they start to doubt themselves and they start to think they need to put in so much effort to prove themselves compared to a man in the same industry.”

The Need for Allies and Representation:

Regina van Tongeren echoed the sentiment of mental barriers and the need for systemic change: “It is sometimes a mental barrier, but what can we do to fix that? I’m a mom, I have a daughter, I need to do something, maybe it is the education system that needs to change.” She powerfully stated, “We need allies to get there, representation is very important to have, to see and to inspire. We need role models.” Looking towards the future, Regina called for tangible action: “For change tomorrow I would like to wish: make teams really more diverse. We need more diverse people in boardrooms. Give the boardrooms keys out to as many people as possible to make teams more diverse.. And the payment gap still exists, it’s happening on an European level. There are more steps being taken to minimize the gap, but it’s still there and it’s not changing fast enough”.

Breaking the Mold and Embracing Individuality:

Georgia Papaioanou offered a strong message of self-belief: “You don’t have to fit the mold have to break it. Challenge yourself. I always tell myself that imposter syndrome is a distraction, then there will always be people that will think that you don’t know as much as you do, you need to prove them wrong.”

Prioritizing Diversity from the Outset:

Grace Dinan emphasized the importance of integrating diversity and inclusion early in project development: “Diversity and inclusion should be a priority from the very beginning of the projects. Right at the proposal stage when choosing. You have a different range of partners to begin with, you have different opinions, mindsets, abilities so you get the best from your project. A lot of times, it can be something you can fix midway to a project, like a tickbox where you put a woman to a panel just to fit in., but it needs to start from the beginning, thinking about accessibility for everyone.”

The Power of Role Models and Mentorship:

Maria Madarieta highlighted the impact of visible role models: “The references are very important, the women reference for example teachers at the school. To let them know that is possible. We should raise awareness, we are mentors, look “I’m doing this, it’s possible”. This way we can break the barriers and inspire”.

Supporting Women Entrepreneurs and Addressing Societal Perceptions:

Megha Quamara suggested concrete ways to support women in XR: “I think programmes and XR initiatives to have dedicated spaces to women entrepreneurs, offering training programmes, technical guidance, how to apply for funding and tech related contributions. Additionally, introducing small changes and flexibility to help on the family side would be great to support careers.” She also addressed ingrained societal biases: “There’s societal perception about a man being related to the tech field and this is something that stops women or makes them doubt themselves. But we also need to talk about the failures. We can’t always talk about the cases where we see names driving in the community. You need to keep in mind that you can’t feel success without failure”.

The Value of Diverse Perspectives:

Leesa Joyce underscored the unique contributions women bring to the field: “We talked about hard skills, as we can be as talented as the other gender, but talking about the other side we can bring another world of perspective. We can give a different perspective from the man that’s already there.“

This webinar served as a powerful reminder of the talent, resilience, and perspectives that women bring to the XR industry. The insights shared by these incredible panelists offer valuable guidance for aspiring professionals, highlight the ongoing challenges, and inspire us all to work towards a more inclusive and equitable future for women in XR.